Benedict XVI Spoke up Against the “Temptation of Euthanasia”
“Old age constitutes the last step of our earthly pilgrimage, which has distinct phases, each with its own lights and shadows. One may ask: does a human being who moves toward a rather precarious condition due to age and sickness still have a reason to exist? Why continue to defend life when the challenge of illness becomes dramatic, and why not instead, accept euthanasia as a liberation? Is it possible to live illness as a human experience to accept with patience and courage?
The person called to accompany the aged sick must confront these questions, especially when there seems to be no possibility of healing. Today’s efficiency mentality often tends to marginalize our suffering brothers and sisters, as if they were only a "weight" and "a problem" for society. (...)
Many scientists, researchers, doctors, nurses, as well as politicians, administrative and pastoral workers never forget that the temptation of euthanasia appears as "one of the more alarming symptoms of the ‘culture of death’, which is advancing, above all, in prosperous societies" (Evangelium Vitae, n. 64). Man’s life is a gift of God that we are all called to guard always. (…) A general commitment is needed so that human life is respected, not only in Catholic hospitals, but in every treatment facility. (...)
Jesus, dying on the Cross, gave human suffering a transcendent value and meaning. Faced with suffering and sickness, believers are invited to remain calm because nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of Christ. In Him and with Him it is possible to face and overcome every physical and spiritual trial and to experience, exactly in the moment of greatest weakness, the fruits of Redemption.” (Source: vatican.va)
